A sidelight or sidelite in a building is a window, usually with a vertical emphasis, that flanks a door or a larger window. [1] Sidelights are narrow, usually stationary and found immediately adjacent to doorways. [2] [3] While most commonly found as supporting elements emphasizing the importance of a primary entrance, sidelights may be employed at any interior or exterior door where a visual emphasis is desired, or where additional light or visibility is needed.
Sidelights are often found in tandem with transom windows and generally the pane size in the sidelights matches that of the transom. [4] Typically narrow, sidelights can be placed on both or just one side of a door and can include a sash or have glass that is stopped into the frame. [5]
While transom windows generally do not have any privacy concerns associated with them because of their height, sidelights usually need to be covered to ensure privacy. [6] Any number of window treatments can be employed to enhance privacy in doorways with sidelights. Miniblinds, micro-miniblinds, and shirred curtains are among the window treatments that offer an increased level of privacy. [6] Another choice is stained or beveled glass, which can offer some privacy while also contributing to the overall beauty of a building's design. [6]
When approaching building security sidelights can factor into entrance security. For instance, for proper security a sidelight should only be installed on the side of the door without the door knob or handle. [7] Sidelights provide people on a building's interior with a narrow view of the outdoors and as such doors without sidelights, especially in apartment buildings, should be equipped with a peephole. [7]
A door is a hinged or otherwise movable barrier that allows ingress (entry) into and egress (exit) from an enclosure. The created opening in the wall is a doorway or portal. A door's essential and primary purpose is to provide security by controlling access to the doorway (portal). Conventionally, it is a panel that fits into the doorway of a building, room, or vehicle. Doors are generally made of a material suited to the door's task. They are commonly attached by hinges, but can move by other means, such as slides or counterbalancing.
A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame; between the tops of two adjacent arches or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently filled with decorative elements.
A window is an opening in a wall, door, roof, or vehicle that allows the exchange of light and may also allow the passage of sound and sometimes air. Modern windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent material, a sash set in a frame in the opening; the sash and frame are also referred to as a window. Many glazed windows may be opened, to allow ventilation, or closed, to exclude inclement weather. Windows may have a latch or similar mechanism to lock the window shut or to hold it open by various amounts.
The Gamble House, also known as the David B. Gamble House, is an iconic American Craftsman home in Pasadena, California, designed by the architectural firm Greene and Greene. Constructed in 1908–1909 as a home for David B. Gamble, son of the Procter & Gamble founder James Gamble, it is today a National Historic Landmark, a California Historical Landmark, and open to the public for tours and events.
Tracery is an architectural device by which windows are divided into sections of various proportions by stone bars or ribs of moulding. Most commonly, it refers to the stonework elements that support the glass in a window. The term probably derives from the tracing floors on which the complex patterns of windows were laid out in late Gothic architecture. Tracery can also be found on the interior of buildings and the exterior.
Window film (tint) is a thin laminate film that can be installed on the interior or exterior of glass surfaces in automobiles and boats, and as well as on the interior or exterior of glass in homes and buildings. It is usually made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a thermoplastic polymer resin of the polyester family, due to its clarity, tensile strength, dimensional stability, and ability to accept a variety of surface-applied or embedded treatments.
A window shutter is a solid and stable window covering usually consisting of a frame of vertical stiles and horizontal rails. Set within this frame can be louvers, solid panels, fabric, glass and almost any other item that can be mounted within a frame. Shutters may be employed for a variety of reasons, including controlling the amount of sunlight that enters a room, to provide privacy, security, to protect against weather or unwanted intrusion or damage and to enhance the aesthetics of a building.
A vestibule is a small room leading into a larger space such as a lobby, entrance hall or passage, for the purpose of waiting, withholding the larger space view, reducing heat loss, providing storage space for outdoor clothing, etc. The term applies to structures in both modern and classical architecture since ancient times. In modern architecture, a vestibule is typically a small room next to the outer door and connecting it with the interior of the building. In ancient Roman architecture, a vestibule was a partially enclosed area between the interior of the house and the street.
Albany City Hall is the seat of government of the city of Albany, New York, United States. It houses the office of the mayor, the Common Council chamber, the city and traffic courts, as well as other city services. The present building was designed by Henry Hobson Richardson in the Romanesque style and opened in 1883 at 24 Eagle Street, between Corning Place and Pine Street. It is a rectangular three-and-a-half-story building with a 202-foot-tall (62 m) tower at its southwest corner. The tower contains one of the few municipal carillons in the country, dedicated in 1927, with 49 bells.
Barton Hall, also known as the Cunningham Plantation, is an antebellum plantation house near present-day Cherokee, Alabama. Built in 1840, it is a stylistically rare example of Greek Revival architecture in Alabama, with elements from the late Federal period. The house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1973 for its architecture.
Architectural photography is the sub genre of the photography discipline where the primary emphasis is made to capturing photographs of buildings and similar architectural structures that are both aesthetically pleasing and accurate in terms of representations of their subjects. Architectural photographers are usually skilled in the use of specialized techniques and cameras for producing such specialized photography.
In architecture, a transom is a transverse horizontal structural beam or bar, or a crosspiece separating a door from a window above it. This contrasts with a mullion, a vertical structural member. Transom or transom window is also the customary U.S. word used for a transom light, the window over this crosspiece. In Britain, the transom light is usually referred to as a fanlight, often with a semi-circular shape, especially when the window is segmented like the slats of a folding hand fan. A prominent example of this is at the main entrance of 10 Downing Street, the official residence of the British prime minister.
The Walter V. Davidson House, located at 57 Tillinghast Place in Buffalo, New York, was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1908. It is an example of Wright's Prairie School architectural style. The house is a contributing property to the Parkside East Historic District, a neighborhood laid out by renowned American landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted in 1876, and also a City of Buffalo landmark.
The Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse, Port Huron, Michigan is a historic courthouse and federal office building located at Port Huron in St. Clair County, Michigan. It is a courthouse of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
A night latch is lock that is fitted on the surface of a door; it is operated from the exterior side of the door by a key and from the interior side of the door by a knob.
Millwork is historically any wood mill produced decorative materials used in building construction. Stock profiled and patterned millwork building components fabricated by milling at a planing mill can usually be installed with minimal alteration. Today, millwork may encompass items that are made using alternatives to wood, including synthetics, plastics, and wood-adhesive composites.
The Howe-Quimby House is a historic house on Sugar Hill Road in Hopkinton, New Hampshire. Built about 1780, it is a well-preserved example of a rural 18th-century farmhouse with later stylistic modifications. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
A porch is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance of a building. A porch is placed in front of the facade of a building it commands, and forms a low front. Alternatively, it may be a vestibule, or a projecting building that houses the entrance door of a building.
The House of Tomorrow is an Art Deco style house that was built in 1937 in the Guilford neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland.
The Owen Moon Farm is a historic country estate on Morgan Hill Road in South Woodstock, Vermont. Set on a steeply sloped 8-acre (3.2 ha) parcel are its main house, an 1816 brick building, a barn, and a 1930s bungaloid guest house. The hilly terrain is heavily landscaped, forming an important visual component of the estate, and serving to afford it privacy from the nearby public roads. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983, primarily for the well-preserved Federal period architecture of the main house.